War Games
by C.B. Magique
Summary: Seto plays a war game with a little orphan girl... how hard could that be?


I sort of got bored and since I doubted that Seto would ever marry I thought that there is probably maybe only one way for Seto to ever find it in himself to bring up a child other than his own little brother: it would have to be ironic.

**Disclaimer: I don't own the copyright of Yu-Gi-Oh! or any characters and merchandise affiliated with it. **

* * *

"Mr. Kaiba, we can't tell you how much we appreciate you visiting our orphanage," the owner of the sad little estate said. "It would be inspirational for our children to see such a successful idol in person. You know, most orphans – when it comes time for them to leave – don't have any drive or goal in life and go out into the world with low esteem. It gets them into all kinds of trouble."

"Yeah, yeah," Seto muttered, bored out of his damn mind. "I don't even know why the hell I agreed to come here. This place is a tip."

The building was old and mouldy. In the front yard there were only a sandpit and a vine growing out of control all over the fence. They had some serious maintenance problems – such as a window Seto noticed which had been broken (probably by a flying baseball) and patched up with gaffer tape. They obviously couldn't even afford to pay for glass.

"Do you want a donation or something?" Seto continued.

"Um… well, you don't have to give a donation, we just thought your presence here would inspire our children to do something more in their lives than prostitution or drug dealing…"

Even though the man said that, Seto could tell that he really wanted that donation. He whipped out his chequebook and a pen and wrote down a hefty donation. "Here, fix up this place. I'm leaving."

Seto turned on his heel. The owner was too surprised by the donation to notice and Seto still hadn't seen any of the kids. He stopped next to a play room where some very little children were playing indoor games. He briefly wondered why he'd decided to bend to the request and visit this dump. He blamed it on his own childhood. He couldn't help sympathising with the orphaned or neglected.

"Excuse me; you're Mr. Seto Kaiba, right?"

Seto turned around and a little girl with long brown hair around eleven or twelve years old was standing behind him. She was wearing a faded red dress that reached her knees and a pair of red sandals with pink flowers. A female caretaker gasped and grabbed her by the shoulder but she resisted roughly.

"Kikuko!" the woman scolded. "Please, excuse her; she's not usually this troublesome."

"I couldn't help but notice that you actually came, so I decided to take the opportunity to ask a favour," Kikuko continued. "Will you adopt me?"

Seto sniffed. "No. I have no reason to adopt a child here."

"But you came all this way…"

Seto merely shrugged. "It turned out to be a waste of time."

Kikuko's eyes narrowed. "Okay, then I'll make a different proposal."

Seto raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I'm listening."

"We'll play for it," she said. "It will be a game that you most likely wouldn't have played before. If I win the game, you will adopt me."

"That's enough!" the woman yanked Kikuko's arm. The young girl was still fiercely resisting.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea."

The woman and Kikuko both looked up at Seto. He smirked. "I'll play the game with you." Kikuko smiled.

They were left in a room by themselves. It was the dining room. Seto could see outside that the sky was darkening with clouds. It would rain soon. Kikuko shuffled the deck and cut it perfectly in half. The Jokers had been removed and the four aces were lying out in front of her.

"This game is called War," she began to explain. "The aim is to get all four of the aces. I know that you prefer strategy games like Duel Monsters but War is a game based completely on luck." She cut both halves of the deck and added one ace to each pile. She put the quarters back into halves and shuffled each of them. "The rules are as follows: the cards are ranked according to their value, ace being the highest. We each get half of the deck. We turn over the top card and the person who reveals the highest ranking card can take the opponent's card. If we draw the same card we're "at war". When we're at war we line up another four cards from the top of our deck behind our initial card to make a bench. Then we turn over a fifth. If the fifth card is higher than the opponents, you win the war and take all of the cards on the table. If our cards have the same value then the process is repeated and you add another four cards to the bench. You turn over a tenth card and if that card is higher than the opponent's then you take all cards on the table. If the cards are the same the process is repeated. If the process is repeated until one person runs out of cards, that player is the loser."

"It sounds simple."

Kikuko handed him his half of the deck. "It's based on luck, so, if you don't win, there's nothing wrong with your strategy skills," she reiterated just for caution.

"I'm aware of that."

They flipped their first cards. Seto revealed a three, Kikuko had a two. "You win."

Seto took both cards and the next cards were revealed. The game continued for a long time. Seto won a couple of wars but Kikuko's aces only seemed to appear during opportune moments. It was just luck, though. He saw her worrying her bottom lip with her teeth and creasing her brow, unsure of how her next play would go. He lost an ace during one war. In the next war, they flipped their fifth card… both were aces. Seto clenched his teeth. If she won this war then he would lose. They made a second bench and flipped the tenth card. Seto turned up a five. Kikuko revealed a nine. Her lips twitched into a smirk.

"I win, that means you have to adopt me now."

Seto froze stiff for a moment. He looked down at the cards on the table… and burst out laughing. Kikuko was taken aback by the sudden outburst.

"Is that funny?"

"To me it is," Seto replied. "It's the irony from my past. I like you."

Kikuko's smile broadened. "So you'll keep your word? You'll definitely adopt me."

"Yeah, sure thing."

* * *

Is this worth making a multi-chapter story at all? Or shall it forever remain in the domain of 'dodgy one-shot written up on a boring day'? Although I think I suddenly have an idea...

The name 'Kikuko'... don't ask me why I thought of that. Logically it makes sense. 'Kiku' means Chrysanthemum, which is just the type of flower I chose because it's my favourite flower and I didn't just want her name to be 'hana' cuz that's a bit boring. 'ko' is just a typical Japanese suffix for a girl's name and the kanji for it is 'child'. So it kind of means 'Chrysanthemum child'. I think it sounds a bit weird at first... it's definitely a name you need to get used to - I thought it sounded really awkward when I first thought of it, but it grew on me eventually (maybe it's all the k's).

Also, 'War' is an actual card game that my friends tought me. The rules are as Kikuko explained them.


End file.
